Rhondda leads the way in recycling

The Rhondda is leading the way in helping organisations meet the new tough electronic and electrical waste directives agreed in the European Union. Both Remploy in Dinas and Wastechnique in Penygraig operate in these areas.

I mentioned this in the Assembly's debate on the regulation last week. For my speech, click below, or you can watch it on Rhondda TV.

Leighton Andrews: I am pleased to support the regulations, because Rhondda is probably the UK centre for television and computer recycling. I have mentioned in the Chamber before the work that is being done by Remploy, in terms of e-cycling, at its factory in Dinas, where it undertakes white goods refurbishment, information technology equipment refurbishment, customer returns management and tracking, in the context of the directive. It has also broken new ground in terms of asset management, data cleansing and the redeployment of equipment. It undertakes work for companies and Government departments, and I thank the Welsh Assembly Government, and Sue Essex in particular, for ensuring that Remploy is in a position to bid for Assembly Government work. I also thank the leader of Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council for doing the same.

Just up the road from the Remploy factory is a company called Wastechnique, in Pen-y-graig, which is number 22 in the Fast Growth 50 list of companies. It recycles approximately 22,000 TVs and monitors per month, and it recycles and refurbishes approximately 8,000 computers per month. It estimates that, when the hazardous waste regulations come in, those figures will increase, and that, in future, it will be recycling 30,000 TVs and monitors per month and 12,000 computers per month as a result. I am pleased that this company is also working closely with Remploy, and it has a wide variety of clients throughout England and Wales, such as local authorities, health boards, police forces, charities, companies such as Biffa, Admiral, Group 4 Securicor and Sony, and Government departments and agencies, such as the Royal Mint and the Welsh Assembly Government. It is exporting as a result of the work that it is doing in terms of recycling and refurbishment. It is exporting refurbished computers, for example, to eastern Europe and sending recycled glass back to Germany and plastic to China for recycling, and some of the television parts that it is refurbishing are being sent back to Samsung in Korea to be incorporated in new televisions. Therefore, Remploy and Wastechnique are operating in fields that we need Wales to be active in. They are not only diverting this equipment from landfill and, therefore, giving an environmental benefit; they are operating in an industry of the future, which is part of the new economy of Wales.